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Friday Opinuendo: On the College of Visual Arts, Len Wilkening and a Cabela's plan

Pioneer Press

Posted:
01/17/2013 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
01/17/2013 05:46:14 PM CST

Closing its doors

The city that prides itself on being a college town is losing one of its own.

The College of Visual Arts, a private four-year college of art and design, announced this week that it will close in June. Officials said the school, founded in 1924, was unable to raise the funds needed to close the gap between rising operating costs and students' ability to pay.

The college, with about 160 students and 66 full- and part-time employees, is a fixture in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, with its main building on Summit Avenue, a gallery at Selby and Western, and other locations nearby.

People in this "wonderful Cathedral neighborhood are one big family," she said. "We will miss one another."

The school achieved a major milestone in 2011, with accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. "Unfortunately, we joined the elite rank of fully accredited art schools just as world economics intervened to thwart our ability to sustain this level of success," Ledy said in a statement.

As a small, less-well-known institution, the school, she said, "has struggled to cultivate the interest of robust donors in Minnesota. This is not a unique problem. Cultural institutions across the country are challenged more than ever, and the burden is much greater for small institutions with limited endowments.

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While the median endowment for private colleges -- about $33 million, according to the College Board -- would produce an annual income per student of $1,600, the school's endowment yields less than $30 per student, according to Ledy.

The college's Summit Avenue headquarters -- featuring a Beaux-Arts facade with "near-perfect symmetry" and Tudor Revival details, according to the guidebook by local author Larry Millett -- is to be sold, along with the gallery and an adjacent building used as a library.

After its difficult lesson in market forces, the school is working with Minneapolis College of Art and Design on an agreement that would give students an opportunity to complete their degrees there.

"Our students are our legacy," Ledy told us.

Remembering Len Wilkening

We remember the work of Len Wilkening whose lifetime career in social service made St. Paul a better place. Wilkening, president of the Wilder Foundation for 19 years until his retirement in 1990, died Jan. 9.

"Though it was considered very risky, he led Wilder in the development of Energy Park, which revitalized a blighted neighborhood," former Wilder President Tom Kingston said in a statement on the foundation website. "He strongly believed that Wilder had to constantly evolve and change to meet the needs of the community. Under his leadership, programs were started and disbanded as the times and needs changed. He believed that everything had a time."

Wilkening, from Regina, Saskatchewan, served in the U.S. Navy Air Corps and graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

He worked for YMCA organizations in Iowa and Ohio, where he completed his master's degree in sociology at Kent State University in 1964. He also directed the United Community Service program in Racine, Wis.

In St. Paul during Wilkening's tenure, the Wilder Foundation expanded programming to youth, created low-income housing and senior centers and established Wilder Research to help organizations better understand social issues and how to address them.

After retirement, Wilkening was instrumental in starting Como Friends, the nonprofit fundraising organization for Como Park Zoo and Conservatory.

He served on the boards of the Minnesota Foundation, Como Zoo and Conservatory, United Hospital Foundation and Hamline United Methodist Church Council.

Welcome to Woodbury

Even if you're not the outdoorsy type, there's reason to welcome Cabela's to Woodbury.

The Sidney, Neb., company this week announced plans for new stores that include one next to Tamarack Village shopping center.

It's noteworthy that the company chose the East Metro area for its next Minnesota location. Others are in Rogers, East Grand Forks and Owatonna.

The announcement provides recognition -- from a marketing-savvy company -- of the value of the I-94 connection between St. Paul and Western Wisconsin and the thousands of commuters who travel the route each day, Matt Kramer, president of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, told us.

Hans Rasmussen, president of Robert Muir Co., which owns Tamarack Village, said Cabela's would bring increased traffic that would benefit most of the retail businesses in Tamarack, the Pioneer Press' Bob Shaw reported.

The 85,000-square-foot store is expected to have about 185 full- or part-time employees.

Look for Cabela's traditional log cabin exterior in Woodbury in the fall of 2014.